Gold fragmentation induced by stopped antiprotons

A natural gold target was irradiated with the antiproton beam from the Low Energy Antiproton Ring at CERN. Antiprotons of 200 MeV/c momentum were stopped in a thick target, products of their annihilations on Au nuclei were detected using the off-line gamma-ray spectroscopy method. In total, yields for 114 residual nuclei were determined, providing a data set to deduce the complete mass and charge distribution of all products with A > 20 from a fitting procedure. The contribution of evaporation and fission decay modes to the total reaction cross section as well as the mean mass loss were estimated. The fission probability for Au absorbing antiprotons at rest was determined to be equal to (3.8+-0.5)%, in good agreement with an estimation derived using other techniques. The mass-charge yield distribution was compared with the results obtained for proton and pion induced gold fragmentation. On the average, the energy released in pbar annihilation is similar to that introduced by ~ 1 GeV protons. However, compared to proton bombardment products, the yield distribution of antiproton absorption residues in the N-Z plane is clearly distinct. The data for antiprotons exhibit also a substantial influence of odd-even and shell effects.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, Revtex 4, to be published in Physical Review

A comprehensive analysis of the hard X-ray spectra of bright Seyfert galaxies

Hard X-ray spectra of 28 bright Seyfert galaxies observed with INTEGRAL were analyzed together with the X-ray spectra from XMM-Newton, Suzaku and RXTE. These broad-band data were fitted with a model assuming a thermal Comptonization as a primary continuum component. We tested several model options through a fitting of the Comptonized continuum accompanied by a complex absorption and a Compton reflection. Both the large data set used and the model space explored allowed us to accurately determine a mean temperature kTe of the electron plasma, the Compton parameter y and the Compton reflection strength R for the majority of objects in the sample. Our main finding is that a vast majority of the sample (20 objects) is characterized by kTe < 100 keV, and only for two objects we found kTe > 200 keV. The median kTe for entire sample is 48(-14,+57) keV. The distribution of the y parameter is bimodal, with a broad component centered at ~0.8 and a narrow peak at ~1.1. A complex, dual absorber model improved the fit for all data sets, compared to a simple absorption model, reducing the fitted strength of Compton reflection by a factor of about 2. Modest reflection (median R ~0.32) together with a high ratio of Comptonized to seed photon fluxes point towards a geometry with a compact hard X-ray emitting region well separated from the accretion disc. Our results imply that the template Seyferts spectra used in AGN population synthesis models should be revised.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Development of toxicity indices for assessing the quality of the Illinois River

Individual toxicant concentrations in the Illinois River were expressed as fractions of their 96-hr LC50 values to bluegills, yielding their component toxicities in bluegill toxic units (BGTU’s). A solution having a toxicity of 1.0 BGTU was defined as being lethal to 50 percent of the bluegills exposed to it for 96 hr. River toxicants included aldrin, undissociated ammonia (ammonia₍ᵤ₎), arsenic, cadmium, hexavalent and trivalent chromium, copper, cyanide, fluoride, linear alkylate sulfonate (LAS), lead, mercury, phenols, and zinc. Component toxicities at different locations on the river were summed to produce the toxicity index, or total toxicity, of the river. Preliminary mean toxicity indices developed from previously published data during 1972 and 1973 ranged from 0.045 to 0.168 BGTU's, on the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers. However, maximum component toxicities of ammonia₍ᵤ₎ and cyanide during this period reached 0.630 and 0.467 BGTU's, respectively. LAS, copper, fluoride, and zinc also contributed to the preliminary river toxicity indices. Mean toxicity indices developed during field tests, in which bluegills were exposed directly to river water, and the lack of mortality at these tests, indicated that the Illinois River is not normally acutely toxic to fish. The 96-hr LC50 values of ammonia₍ᵤ₎ and LAS to bluegills were found to be 1.65 and 6.5 mg/liter, respectively, using continuous-flow bioassays with dilution water similar in hardness, alkalinity and pH to Illinois River water.U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological SurveyOpe

Composition of the nuclear periphery from antiproton absorption

Thirteen targets with mass numbers from 58 to 238 were irradiated with the antiproton beam from the Low Energy Antiproton Ring facility at CERN leading to the formation of antiprotonic atoms of these heavy elements. The antiproton capture at the end of an atomic cascade results in the production of more or less excited residual nuclei. The targets were selected with the criterion that both reaction products with one nucleon less than the proton and neutron number of the target be radioactive. The yield of these radioactive products after stopped-antiproton annihilation was determined using gamma-ray spectroscopy techniques. This yield is related to the proton and neutron density in the target nucleus at a radial distance corresponding to the antiproton annihilation site. The experimental data clearly indicate the existence of a neutron-rich nuclear periphery, a "neutron halo", strongly correlated with the target neutron separation energy Bn and observed for targets with Bn < 10 MeV. For two-target nuclei 106Cd and 144Sm, with larger neutron binding energies, a proton-rich nuclear periphery was observed. Most of the experimental data are in reasonable agreement with calculations based on current antiproton-nucleus and pion-nucleus interaction potentials and on nuclear densities deduced with the help of the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach. This approach was, however, unable to account for the 106Cd and 144Sm results.Comment: Latex (RevTeX,aps style), 13 pages + 12 Postscript figure

Long-term variability of AGN at hard X-rays

Variability at all observed wavelengths is a distinctive property of AGN. Hard X-rays provide us with a view of the innermost regions of AGN, mostly unbiased by absorption along the line of sight. Swift/BAT offers the unique opportunity to follow, on time scales of days to years and with a regular sampling, the 14-195 keV emission of the largest AGN sample available up to date for this kind of investigation. We study the amplitude of the variations, and their dependence on sub-class and on energy, for a sample of 110 radio quiet and radio loud AGN selected from the BAT 58-month survey. About 80% of the AGN in the sample are found to exhibit significant variability on months to years time scales, radio loud sources being the most variable. The amplitude of the variations and their energy dependence are incompatible with variability being driven at hard X-rays by changes of the absorption column density. In general, the variations in the 14-24 and 35-100 keV bands are well correlated, suggesting a common origin of the variability across the BAT energy band. However, radio quiet AGN display on average 10% larger variations at 14-24 keV than at 35-100 keV and a softer-when-brighter behavior for most of the Seyfert galaxies with detectable spectral variability on month time scale. In addition, sources with harder spectra are found to be more variable than softer ones. These properties are generally consistent with a variable power law continuum, in flux and shape, pivoting at energies >~ 50 keV, to which a constant reflection component is superposed. When the same time scales are considered, the timing properties of AGN at hard X-rays are comparable to those at lower energies, with at least some of the differences possibly ascribable to components contributing differently in the two energy domains (e.g., reflection, absorption).Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

The Second INTEGRAL AGN Catalogue

The INTEGRAL mission provides a large data set for studying the hard X-ray properties of AGN and allows testing of the unified scheme for AGN. We present analysis of INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI, JEM-X, and OMC data for 199 AGN supposedly detected by INTEGRAL above 20 keV. The data analysed here allow a significant spectral extraction on 148 objects and an optical variability study of 57 AGN. The slopes of the hard X-ray spectra of Seyfert 1 and Seyfert~2 galaxies are found to be consistent within the uncertainties, whereas higher cut-off energies and lower luminosities are measured for the more absorbed / type 2 AGN. The intermediate Seyfert 1.5 objects exhibit hard X-ray spectra consistent with those of Seyfert 1. When applying a Compton reflection model, the underlying continua appear the same in Seyfert 1 and 2 with photon index 2, and the reflection strength is about R = 1, when assuming different inclination angles. A significant correlation is found between the hard X-ray and optical luminosity and the mass of the central black hole in the sense that the more luminous objects appear to be more massive. There is also a general trend toward the absorbed sources and type 2 AGN having lower Eddington ratios. The black holemass appears to form a fundamental plane together with the optical and X-ray luminosity of the form Lv being proportional to Lx^0.6 M^0.2, similar to that found between radio luminosity Lr, Lx, and M. The unified model for Seyfert galaxies seems to hold, showing in hard X-rays that the central engine is the same in Seyfert 1 and 2, but seen under different inclination angles and absorption. (Abridged)Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&A. Corrections by language editor included in version

INTEGRAL observations of V0332+53 in outburst

We present the analysis of a 100ksec Integral(3-100kev) observation of the transient X-ray pulsar V0332+53 inoutburst. The source is pulsating at P=4.3751+/-0.0002s with a clear double pulse from 6 kev to 60 kev. The average flux was ~550mCrab between 20 kev and 60 kev. We modeled the broad band continuum from 5 kev to 100 kev with a power-law modified by an exponential cut off. We observe three cyclotron lines: the fundamental line at 24.9+/-0.1 kev, the first harmonic at 50.5+/-0.1 kev as well as the second harmonic at71.7+/-0.8 kev, thus confirming the discovery of the harmonic lines by Coburn et al. (2005) in RXTE data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A Letter

Information on antiprotonic atoms and the nuclear periphery from the PS209 experiment

In the PS209 experiments at CERN two kinds of measurements were performed: the in-beam measurement of X-rays from antiprotonic atoms and the radiochemical, off-line determination of the yield of annihilation products with mass number A_t -1 (less by 1 than the target mass). Both methods give observables which allows to study the peripheral matter density composition and distribution.Comment: LaTeX (espcrc1 style), 6 pages, 3 EPS figures, 1 table, Proceedings of the Sixth Biennal Conference on Low-Energy Antiproton Physics LEAP 2000, Venice, Ital